Monday, December 23, 2002

"Don't get the idea that I do any fancy z-axis 3-D virtual camera math or programming! I just combine elements from a couple of pictures, separate things into layers in Photoshop, replace backgrounds and then wiggle 'em around in After Effects. All the parallax scrolling and zooming are figured out as I go shot by shot. I think of myself as primarily a live action guy so I just adjust the scale, position, and blur keyframes until they look right to my eye."

... interviews with octogenarians David Friedman and Dan Sonney, who made exquisitely bad films such as Blood Feast and She Freak between 1930 and 1970. Together, the two pioneered the "exploitation" genre –- cheap films packed with sex and violence whose sole raison d'etre is making money off social taboos.

iStopMotion, ustopMotion, we_allStopMotion.
This software lets you use your video camera to make one of those stop motion movies. Not tape involved. Goes right to disk. Bring the stop motion movies you create into iMovie of Final Cut Pro for further editing.

MASSACHUSETTS Consumers can sign up any time between January 1, 2003 and March 1, 2003 to be included in the first release of the "Do Not Call" list, which will be submitted to telemarketers in April 2003.

Thursday, December 19, 2002

NYC TRIP REPORT
FLY/TRAIN/FLY/TRAIN.

That’s the age-old dilemma. You’ve got to leave early to get to the airport and then you have to get there an hour early and then once you land in NYC, if your flight hasn’t been delayed, you need to catch a cab to the airport. With the train, it’s off to the train station and it’s a straight shot down to NYC.

So I took the Acela high-speed train to New York City today. It’s great. Funny thing is that they let you board the train only 10 minutes prior to departure. So you don’t even have to worry about getting there 1 hour prior.

You really don’t even have to talk to anyone either if you bought a ticket over the internet with a credit card. You just stick your credit card into a machine and it prints out your train tickets. Nice.

This week they’ve recycled about six of my stories that you’ve already seen here on Off On A Tangent! Oh yes, if you want to read the news before it happens, Off On A Tangent is the place.

Here are the stories that I had before they did:

1. Jason Eric Smith Got his Mac Back from an eBay scammer. One interesting thing the Times uncovered was the fact that eBay wasn’t actually involved in the transaction because the buyer asked the seller to end the auction early and sell the Mac directly bypassing eBay. That isn’t right

2. Firewire Dinosaur – This is old news. I’m sure I already talked about this over a month ago.

3. Advent calendar – Had it already. Remember the snowman thing I posted a link to?

4. Picture yourself – Did that too, remember when I ate the Kugel and took a scary picture of myself. Josh says I looked scary, I just thought I looked hungry.

5. That guy who tracked a package sent to Santa – This just proves that electronic new dissemination is much more speedy that the old once a week techie newspaper column.

6. Virtual Tour of Boston’s Big Dig – OK, that’s the last straw. The writers of this whole section must have been reading me daily. I mean how can they find this tour plus all the other stuff? When I saw this story I said, “Harumph.” The other people on the Acela were looking at me with crazed looks on their faces. Well, not really, there were only 5 other people in my car that’s meant to seat about 70. Hey Acela, how about some discount tickets?

So I got off the train in Penn Station and needed to find the Krispy Kreme Donuts. That was the meeting place Josh and I agreed upon. Well as I got off the train and entered the big lobby of Penn Station I saw about 6 people eating Krispy Kreme Donuts! I went over to the fat guy was just finishing off a six pack, of donuts. He pointed me in the right direction.

Once we got outside in the street we saw a McDonuts! Hey, we don’t have that in Boston. I guess hte pressure from Krispy Kreme is geting to them. they were even making donuts in the window.

We went on an excursion to the Mecca of videographers. That’s what we are. We went to B&H Photo.

It just so happened that right outside of Penn Station a guy was handing out B&H pamplets. He directed us to the store.

I didn’t know that B&H Photo was run by orthodox Jews. Most of the sales people in the store had a Yarmulke.

After our fun experience at B&H we needed to find a place for lunch. We went back to the B&H guy, since he was so good at directions the first time, and he sent us over to the STAGE DOOR DELICATESSEN and RESTAURANT. It’s at 5 PENN PLAZA. It was a great place for lunch.

Josh said I made a good call in deciding that we should split the sandwich instead of each getting our own. So we each got a half of a pastrami sandwich that wouldn’t fit into our mouths.

Our business meeting went well and I caught and earlier train back to Boston in time to have a Beer at the Hard Rock Café in Boston. It’s at the BAck Bay Station which is one stop before south Station and a lot more convenient if you live in town.

Monday, December 16, 2002

I still have two more episodes of Taken left to go. It was a big commitment, to invest 20 hours in this mini-series, but with TiVo I could schedule my viewing at a time that was convenient to me. TiVo rocks!

The characters were well developed, and I'm not just talking about the ladies. ;-)

When my favorite charaters were killed off, I was sad to see them go. Yet, at the same time, I was impressed that a TV show could make me feel that way after so short a time.

When I've viewed the last episode and deleted it, I'll be crying as I hit TiVo's [ Select ] key.

I called the Secret Service and the Chicago PD, pleading, all they had to do was be there when Fedex dropped off the package. It was a guaranteed hit, he'd have another counterfeit cashier's check, all you'd have to do is arrest him. Like shooting fish in a barrel. "Sorry, Detective McDonaugh will be out until next Wednesday, can I take a message?" Fine, if the cops won't do it, I decided I'd just Priceline a ticket and be waiting next door when it got dropped off.

A petite 17-year-old, irate after seeing three men running from her home in the wee morning hours Tuesday, sprinted outdoors barefoot, clad in pajamas, outran one of the trespassers, tackled and straddled him, then hog-tied him with a rope until police arrived minutes later.

Sunday, December 08, 2002

Our ships will be treated like real ships that someone had to go out and film with a real camera. That means no 3-D "hero" shots panning and zooming wildly with the touch of a mousepad. The questions we will ask before every VFX shot are things like: "How did we get this shot? Where is the camera? Who's holding it? Is the cameraman in another spacecraft? Is the camera mounted on the wing?"

Thursday, December 05, 2002

FootnoteTV: The Sopranos.
Answers your questions about subjects from The Sopranos including HUD and mortgage fraud, Competency to stand trial, Missing children, the Military's homosexual conduct policy, Spousal privileges, Suicide in the United States, and more.

Wednesday, December 04, 2002

Bottle Cap - Smart or Stupid?
Just because a Snapple bottle cap tells me that, "No piece of paper can be folded more than 7 times," I'm no going to post it to a very popular weblog without first trying it out.

First I tried a little 5" x 7" piece of paper and it can not be folded more than 7 times.

Ok, maybe it was too small. Next up was two pages of the Boston Globe. You know, two connected pages, which make up one huge piece of paper. This should be able to be folded up a gazillion times.

So I folded it up, once, twice, thrice... up to seven times, yet alas, it would not fold an eighth time.

I realize that to many, my having a web site appears very vain. Well, what if I told you God told me to have this web site? Huh? What about that? OK, I'm exaggerating a little. He didn't exactly tell me. He sent me an e-mail.

Mike Binder, creator and star of that show, had set his home TiVo to record his 1999 movie, "The Sex Monster," about a man whose wife becomes bisexual. After that, Mr. Binder's TiVo assumed he would enjoy a steady stream of gay programming. Unnerved, he counteracted the onslaught by recording the Playboy Channel and MTV's spring break bikini coverage. It worked, he says. "My TiVo doesn't look at me funny anymore."

His wife, however, was taken aback when she saw all the half-naked women he was ordering through TiVo. He told her those women meant nothing to him: "I'm just counterprogramming because TiVo thinks I'm gay." She was unamused.

Tuesday, November 26, 2002

Reports say that the tabloids have been staking out Aaron?s apartment in his hometown, and that he been secretly seeing someone. Her name is Julie Ross, she?s a 23-year-old kindergarten teacher, and they?ve know each other for about a year. The tabloids say she arrived at his apartment last Thursday at 11:30pm and snuck out the next morning at 6:20am. I also hear that Aaron had been trying to get with her since they met, but she was in a relationship, and always turned him down. Then a month ago, they ran into each other at a local bar. Of course, by then, Aaron became this big star, and she dumped her boyfriend of 4 years and went home with Aaron. They?ve been seeing each other a few nights a week since then, and Aaron?s not denying it. When they reached him for a comment, Aaron simply said that ?Yes it?s true, Julie stayed at my apartment last night."

Monday, November 25, 2002

Fruit SMASH another online game by Electrotank.
It's a lot like Bejeweled, where you clear the board when you get three in a row, but this game makes you click on each adjoining fruit. No click and drag online.

TriggerStreet.com was founded in January 2002 as the web-based filmmaker and screenwriter's community of record - an interactive mechanism for the purpose of discovering and showcasing new and unique talent.

Message to Intuit:
PLEASE SEND ME A LINK FOR FREE SHIPPING FOR A MAC VERSION of Turbotax.
I clicked a link in your email for Turbotax and all I get are options to buy the 'Windows version' with free shipping. (That's because I had a PC last year).

Now I have a Mac and only get order screens that want to charge me for shipping.

You need to give Windows users who have switched to a mac the option of ordering a mac version with free shipping from your email link.
PLEASE SEND ME A LINK FOR FREE SHIPPING FOR A MAC VERSION of Turbotax.

What people are really interested in are boring shots of your baby crawling around and eating baby food, spliced together in a random fashion, that makes no sense, with a sappy music sound track to help numb their brains.

Thursday, November 07, 2002

Rutherford Hayes owned pedigreed Jersey cows, the first Siamese Kitten to reach America, Hector and Nellie, Shepherd dogs, one goat, four canaries, two hunting pups, and one English Mastiff named Duke. Also four kittens, one Mockingbird, and several Carriage horses.

Saturday, November 02, 2002

"In an entirely new installment of the cult feature franchise, the blissfully ignorant Bradys are propelled into the national spotlight as America's First Family. ... When Bobby finds a lost lottery ticket worth $67 million, Mike decides that the only Brady thing to do is try and return it to its rightful owner. Mike's honesty is rewarded by an unscrupulous President of the United States who needs to add an ethical Vice President candidate" ... blah blah blah ..."Mike suddenly finds himself taking the Oath of Office and moving himself and his family from their split-level ranch house to 1600 Pennsylvania" ... blah blah blah ... "Greg falls for an attractive intern, Jan is haunted by the disembodied voice of Abraham Lincoln" (why does that sound like an old "SNL" sketch?) "and Cindy learns that she shouldn't tattle on her family to reporters."

That airs on November 29th on Fox. Tellingly, that's two days AFTER sweeps.

Intensified person controls at American airports can be mind numbing. A French woman is threatened with prison, because she protested in special way.

Washington - The French woman, 56, had celebrated the wedding of her nephew in Indiana and was on the return trip to France, when she was examined by security personnel. According to witnesses the scanner beeped again and again, until the "initially cooperative" woman became impatient and angrily took off her sweater, her blouse and - despite violent resistance by the security guard - also her bra. Nothing was found despite the striptease, but the incident led to a 10 minute shutdown of the airport. When the responsible judge in Evansville informed her about the possible maximum penalty, the woman broke down. The judge invoked the new anti-terror law, that was passed after September 11, 2001 and that punishes "criminal offences" at airports with up to three years of prison.

''In Spanish, to demonstrate the use of `yo soy' he would say, `Yo soy an [expletive].' Or he would sneeze in class and say `bull [expletive]' so that everyone could hear it. I had to suspend him for that.''

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About Me

Steve is a Social Media Traveler. Companies, brands, and destinations send my wife and I on trips in hopes that we will publicly share our experiences via social media. Examples include opening festivities for the Hermitage Club and traveling with GMC to the Super Bowl. (Go Pats!) We are available for more branded experience trips.